How aware of WEEE are we?

It's the end of another week and here at MRW we are wrapping up the feature pages that will be in next week's issue of the magazine. We'll be focusing on WEEE (waste electronic and electrical equipment) and, given the recent national spotlight thrown on the UK's WEEE system by Sky News and Greenpeace, it is timely.

While introducing new legislation is never going to be easy, some of the WEEE recyclers who comment in the upcoming issue of MRW raise some interesting points that must be addressed if the industry is to free itself from some of the negative publicity it gets.

Does everyone involved in the WEEE chain really know exactly what happens to the WEEE they have handled? Are they sure it is being treated in a way that meets the environmental aims of the directive? Is there enough enforcement of the regulations to ensure that rogue operators are shut down and those that have invested in environmentally sound operations flourish?

Also, do the public even know about the need to recycle their e-waste? A much-awaited WEEE publicity campaign was announced by BERR and WRAP last December - although MRW didn't see anything other than the initial press release.

We decided to ask WRAP what had happened to this to be told a "pilot project" would be run in "a number of localised areas" throughout the month of March and that the PR activity ahead of Christmas was a "precursor to the main pilot campaign". That wasn't made clear in the initial release but wouldn't it be easier to run a blanket national WEEE awareness campaign? Do we really need a pilot and precursor to a main pilot? Having run campaigns to increase the recycling of materials such as paper, glass and cans, shouldn't we know how to run a recycling publicity campaign by now?

Anyway, MRW is pleased to note that the North London Waste Authority will be running this WEEE campaign in Camden where the MRW office is based - so we will be keeping our eye out for it! In the meantime, if you spot the WEEE campaign where you are let us know!

Andrea Height, Deputy Editor, MRW